Chopping a hand off

...

After walking along the dirt road for a good amount of time. I stopped and waited for the Cultists to come to me.

Julius is currently tracking me by the spirit he put inside me. The spirit is contracted to him, so he has a nigh perfect read on my location.

Now where are these guys? They should have sniffed me out by now. I did purposely leave some stragglers so they would lead me to Petelgeuse.

*swoosh*

I then heard multiple sounds of the wind being torn before finding myself surrounded by cultists. They all had their robes and masks covering themselves and silently stood around me.

Seeing them silently stand there, I calmly told them a command.

"Take me to Sloth."

Hearing me, they all interchanged gazes before nodding and all pointing their arms in one direction. And with that, they bowed before dashing back into the shadows of the forest.

I stared in the direction they pointed for a second before taking a deep breath to prepare myself. I even felt at my wrists to make sure all my knives where safely secured and all there.

Feeling all 10 of them, I let out an exhale and started walking through the forest. And as I walked, I ran into a pack of demon beasts.

But I had a magic stone from the village. These stones made it to where demon beasts treat the user of one like air.

A lot of adventures and families that are pretty well off actually buy these stones for their own safety.

But anyways, I made my way past the beasts and came upon a steep hill that went on for a good minute or two.

I had to break some branches here and there but I managed to hit the clearing I was looking for.

In this clearing was a structure that dug into a cliffside. The structure looked ancient and old, some parts of its walls where glazed over with moss and were full of cracks.

These cracks ran deep, but somehow the structure.... no ruins was still standing.

And at the entrance of the ruins was a figure whose face was covered from its shade. The figure noticing took a couple steps before a pale face revealed itself.

His eyes where red, unblinking, and had deep blue bags underneath them. His hair was in the style of a simple bowl cut but had an interesting green color.

He also had an uncomfortable smile that reached from ear to the other. His teeth where yellow and jagged, his fingers where covered in scars, and his figure seemed frail and brittle.

And once he had gotten close enough to me, he bowed his head and spread his cape in greeting.

"Greetings believer in love, I am the Archbishop of Sloth...."

His face then shot up and stared directly at me with an insane smile. "Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti, at your service."

He then shot up into a standing position before continuing. "How wonderful it is to have you here, a child blessed with LOVE!"

"HOW WONDERFUL!"

Feeling a bit awkward with a hint of impatience, I took a bow of curtesy.

"It is wonderful to be greeted by Sloth, my name is Natsuki Suburu."

I then raised my head and stared directly into his eyes with a calm smile. "I have come from the snow or the north to fulfill my gospels command to become one of your fingers."

He then paused and stared at me in silence before suddenly arching his back and letting out a fit of sobs.

"OH! HOW DEDICATED, HOW UTTERLY TERRIFYING DEDICATED, OH HOW SLOTHFUL I AM!"

And as tears steamed down his eyes, he straightened himself before quickly jumping forward and pulling me into a hug as his sobbing intensified.

"FORGIVE ME FOR MY SLOTH SUBURU!"

Patting the crazed man on the back, I smile before slowly grabbing a knife present in my sleeve. And as I bring it close to his back, I give him some parting words.

"Don't worry, I am merely following my own interests....."

*shank*

"Juice."

His sobbing then froze along with his body. Feeling him stiffen up, I grasped my hold even tighter onto the dagger in his back before twisting roughly and pulling it out.

I had made sure to stab him in an area I was confident held his heart.

And as I brought him slowly to the ground, I felt my face twist uncontrollably into a smile as he looked up at me with a gaze of confusion and fear.

And his gaze almost even looked sane.

"H-How did y-you...."

*stab*

Taking advantage of his shock and confusion, I stabbed directly into the side of his skull and stared him directly in the eyes to make sure the light that was held within them had faded.

Once positive of his bodies death, I took a step back before looking towards the forest and calmly spoke.

"Do it."

Julius then jumped out of the forest and showed to have his sword covered in a deep crimson. He had cleared out any and all cultists around us.

"Al Clarista."

With those words, the spirits that he had contracted showed themselves before infusing into his blade, and the spirit he left inside me also went inside creating a huge white light to emit from it.

He then raised it up before quickly bringing it down on top of Betelgeuse's body.

*BOOM*

And with that strike, it created a huge plume of dust to shoot up and caused the ruins near us to also collapse from the tremors it causes the ground to produce.

Watching it collapse, I saw a stray cultist make it out before it was destroyed and look around in confusion.

Quickly infusing my arm with magic, I threw an extremely quick and powerful dagger as it silently cut through both the air and through his chest.

Observing the ruins for a couple minutes longer, I confidently decided that nobody could survive that long under that many tons of rock and dirt.

Now turning my gaze towards the crater caused by Julius's blow, I saw a pile of ashes present in place of Petelgeuse's body.

Walking over to the ashes, I strengthened my leg before giving a swift kick. This caused the ashes to be thrown away.

Underneath the ashes was a gospel, it had somehow made it through Julius attack. But how? The gospel that Roswaal had could be burned by throwing it inside a normal fireplace.

But then again, that was a gospel artificially created by Echidna. But who was the one who made the original gospels?

Should I destroy this thing?

I mean it's pretty much useless to me. The pages are blank. This means that the person who's destiny was written inside it is dead.

This also means, Juice is dead.

"Is that a gospel?" Julius's voice then ran from behind me before turning deadly serious. "If so, destroy that accursed thing."

I just look over my shoulder at him before pocketing it. "It survived a full power attack from you, do you honestly think you can destroy it?"

In response, Julius gave me a deep frown before sighing. "I guess that's true."

He then turned his head towards where Petelgeuse or 'Juice' was killed. He had an extremely complicated look on his face.

"Are you sure he's dead? I mean he was an Archbishop after all? This seemed almost too easy to be true."

I walked up to him before patting his shoulder. "Relax, there wasn't any words written in the gospel. That means Sloth is no more."

Patting his shoulder one more time I walked over to the cultist I put a hole through and searched around for my knife. Looking around, I found it embedded in a tree.

I then used some strengthening magic to pull it out before looking at its edge and smiled. If this knife is still sharp, that means that old man will make me something crazy.

But my gaze caused me to frowned as directed it towards the red present on its blade. That blood had just made me realize that I had just killed a person.

Calmly gazing at the body of the Cultist with a literal hole going through his chest, I can't help but feel confused.

But why....?

Why don't I feel anything?

....